A U.S. Navy ship has used an Alabama-made Raytheon missile to destroy a target in the longest-distance surface –to-air strike in naval history.

The tests, announced this week by the company, included the destroyer U.S.S. Paul Jones using a Standard Missile-6 interceptor to take out a cruise missile target flying over the horizon. In separate tests, other SM-6s were fired from the John Paul Jones to intercept targets traveling at supersonic speeds.

The SM-6 destroyed the targets in each case.

Raytheon isn't revealing the exact distances involved in the test but said it achieved a double milestone of intercepting a supersonic target and using a network of systems – including sensors, aircraft and ship-borne weapons – to destroy a cruise missile beyond the horizon.

"If you want to defend against cruise missile attacks, the Standard Missile-6 is your weapon of choice," said Mike Campisi, Raytheon's SM-6 senior program director. "The missile's ability to use networked sensors to engage threats beyond the ship radar's horizon makes it the most advanced extended range area defense weapon in existence."

The SM-6 is one of two missiles produced at Raytheon's integration and testing facility at Redstone Arsenal. In June, Raytheon was awarded a $275 million contract for the procurement of 93 additional SM-6s. The company has already delivered more than 100 SM-6 to the U.S. Navy.

The $75 million, 70,000 square-foot facility, which opened in November 2012, produces SM-6 and a second version, the SM-3.